We are all too familiar with the frustration of scurrying to the Payroll office on Friday to pick up our check before they close at noon, only to find the door closed, locked, and “not a creature stirring”, while our watches suspiciously display 11:51...AM. Like a balloon losing air as it flutters around the room, so our deflated excitement and anticipation at getting paid causes us to want to kick open the doors of the Administration Building and scream at the top of our lungs. And as we walk back to our dorm room - face to the ground - we can almost feel that providential slip of paper clutched in our hand. We lust over that vestigial feeling of financial security as we wonder to ourselves, “What would Suze Orman do?”
What can be done to prevent such a necessitous situation? What we need to do is pinpoint what the problem really is. Though, we are not pinning the tail on the donkey, here part of the problem is obvious: a true lack of customer service. Many times, when students and staff workers are expected to meet halfway to solve issues, financial, records, etc., the student is left standing at a fork in the road with no signs of direction.
We shouldn’t rule out other possible factors that are contributing to the issue at hand. First, we students are not immune from irresponsibility. We are expected to do our part so that our administrative staff can adequately assist us. Students not caring enough to show up to appointments with financial advisors reasonably prepared with pertinent questions/concerns or necessary documentation no doubt adds to the confusion.
Secondly, a question that we should contemplate is whether Administration is sufficiently staffed to meet the growing needs of the student body? A circulating joke on campus is that if all the student workers quit for a day, the school would shut down. A simplified dialogue between one of our students and a financial advisor is evidence of a possible shortage of trained professionals available to help us: “I filled out all the paper work I need for CalGrants; why am I not getting the money that I was told I would get?” “I don’t know. Why don’t you call them?” “Um, my job is to be a student right now. What’s yours?”
I don’t want my words or the overall mood of this article to be misunderstood. There are numerous staff working within our Administration that have been unbelievably helpful in guiding me throughout my college career here at La Sierra and I am profoundly grateful for their support and dedication to student success. However, what is alarming to me, even as I write this, is that this financial advisor in the aforementioned scenario - unless he/she was having an exceptionally bad day - had the mentality that this tender-aged student possessed the time, knowledge and experience to figure out for themselves problems that an advisor like themselves in this position is paid to solve.
This collection of reasons feeding into the problems we now face does not negate the importance of the daily common courtesy that needs to be shown when interacting with others, both as professionals and as students. The staff cannot be expected to do all of the grunt work. While I encourage students to exude a certain degree of patience and understanding when dealing with a likely swamped administrator, I also urge them prepare for themselves as much as they can to ease the process. But, I also encourage the staff working within Administration to take pride in their work. A smile or an open ear can go a long way to calm the nerves of a stressed out student who may not be certain how they will pay for their education. Finally, I push for administrators to be accommodating to the students not only as paying customers, but also as members of the same LSU family.
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